The award of the enabling works contract for the West Terminal and Concourse 1 at Al-Maktoum International Airport is a positive development for Dubai’s construction sector.

This year contractors and consultants have said there has been a marked drop in tendering activity for new projects and as that trend continues there are growing concerns about the pipeline of future work available in Dubai.

The Al-Maktoum enabling works telegraphs what to expect in the future. The work precedes the first superstructure packages for the $32bn expansion programme at the airport, which will create one of, if not the, largest airports in the world.

If all goes to plan, the superstructure work now looks likely to be awarded shortly after work for the Expo 2020 site is completed and construction activity in the emirate is forecast to dip sharply.

The Expo is the focus of Dubai’s infrastructure spending at present, with billions of dollars of building work on the actual site, together with supporting infrastructure schemes such as a new metro link, road intersections and stormwater drainage tunnels.

Once these Expo projects are completed, the supply chain will be desperate for new work. That should mean that Dubai will be able to take advantage of competitive construction costs, while for the supply chain it will mean a new programme of work.

Although the scale of the airport project is vast, it will not necessarily result in growth, as Dubai’s fast-paced construction sector now has to run to merely stand still.

The conundrum for the construction sector is that it has developed to a point where it is reliant on high levels of activity and while the airport will cost billions of dollars to deliver, the turnover for the construction sector will do little more than replace that generated by the Expo build out, which itself effectively replaced the turnover from the early Dubai Parks and Resorts project.

For the airport project to generate real growth it will need to be a catalyst for widespread development in the surrounding area by the private sector. Although some of that work has already started, Dubai’s construction sector will need much more if wants to do more than stand still.